Bonn Acts To Control Spy Damage

August 25, 1985|The New York Times

BONN, WEST GERMANY — A significant shake-up of West Germany`s intelligence operations appears imminent after the announced defection to East Germany of a senior counterintelligence officer, government officials said Saturday.

The defection of the officer, Hans Joachim Tiedge, who had been in charge of West Germany`s operations against East German agents, was reported Friday. It is being appraised by intelligence experts as a serious blow to West Germany`s anti-espionage capacities.

Interior Minister Friedrich Zimmermann rushed back from a Mediterranean holiday after East Germany announced the defection. He held urgent meetings in Bonn to coordinate efforts to rescue possibly endangered West German agents in Eastern Europe and to assess the overall damage.

``The necessary damage-limitation measures have been taken,`` declared Zimmermann. He insisted there was no reason for panic.

Bild, a Hamburg daily, quoting sources in Bonn, said two important West German agents in East Germany had fled to West Berlin because Tiedge was about to expose them. The Express newspaper of Cologne said West German intelligence had begun pulling agents out of East Germany in case Tiedge identified them.

Officials said pressure was building on Heribert Hellenbroich, who until the beginning of this month had been president of the Cologne-based counterintelligence agency, to give up his new post as head of the Federal Intelligence Service outside Munich.

As head of the counterintelligence body, officially known as the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hellenbroich had tolerated Tiedge`s unruly behavior, including public drunkenness, fits of depression, enormous debts and family problems.

The Cologne agency`s new director, Ludwig-Holger Pfhals, reportedly was less indulgent.